The present invention is directed toward heated gloves and more particularly, toward inexpensive gloves with chemical heaters integrally formed therewith and which are intended to be disposable after a single use.
There are numerous times when it is necessary or simply desirable to wear heated gloves. Workers who must be outside on cold days, skiers or spectators at winter sporting events would benefit substantially from the same. Over the years, various types of heated groves have been proposed but to Applicant's knowledge none has been successful. This is probably due to the high cost of prior art gloves.
Attempts to produce heated gloves have included electric heating elements within the gloves which requires a power source such as batteries carried by the gloves or on the person's body separate from the gloves. In either case, the batteries cannot last very long as electric heating elements draw a great deal of current and drain batteries very quickly.
Exothermic chemical packs have also been proposed for use as a heat source for heating gloves. In every case known to Applicant, the gloves include one or more pouches into which a chemical heat pack can be inserted. Some of the gloves then transmit the heat from the heat pack through conductive material such as shown in FIGS. 1 and 6 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,482 to Spector et al. or through the use of various liquid bladders such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,003 to Rinehart.
After the chemical heat packs are exhausted, they are removed from the pouches attached to the gloves and are discarded. New heat packs can then be inserted into the pouches. While such gloves may be useful, they can also be expensive as they must be provided with pouches that can be opened and closed. The gloves can also be somewhat bulky.
Thus, there is a need for an inexpensive heated glove and particularly one that can be used by itself or as a glove liner or insert that can be used with an outer glove.